In women investigation of physical activity barriers according to some variables

The aim of this study is to identify the barriers that women encounter while engaging in physical activity and to examine how these barriers differ according to certain demographic variables (age, marital status, educational level, employment status, etc.). Although women's participation in physical activity is of personal, social, and societal importance, it is often limited by various physical, psychological, social, and environmental factors. In this context, the study seeks to reveal the main barriers affecting women's participation in physical activity and to contribute to interventions and policy recommendations in this field. This research was conducted using the general survey model, one of the quantitative research methods. The study group consisted of at least 503 women with different age and socioeconomic characteristics. Data were collected through a "Personal Information Form" prepared by the researcher, along with the Barriers to Physical Activity Scale, developed by Suraya et al. (2013) and adapted into Turkish by Yurtçiçek et al. (2018), whose validity and reliability have been established. Data collection was carried out both online and in printed form. For the analysis, descriptive statistics as well as appropriate parametric and non-parametric tests were employed to determine the relationships between variables. The findings revealed that the most common barriers to women's participation in physical activity were personal (X̄=2.31±0.58), social environment (X̄=2.66±0.94), and physical environment (X̄=2.39±0.87) factors, while the overall scale score was (X̄=2.38±0.60). According to age, young adult women's scores for physical environment barriers (X̄=2.50±0.90) were significantly higher than those of adults (X̄=2.33±0.85) (p<0.05). Furthermore, the total barrier score of unemployed women (X̄=2.47±0.61) was found to be significantly higher than that of employed women (X̄=2.31±0.58) (p<0.01). These findings demonstrate that lack of time, low motivation, and family responsibilities are the main barriers to women's participation in physical activity, and that demographic variables such as age and employment status significantly differentiate barrier levels.